PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he differs with President Robert Mugabe on tactics and strategy but will defend the veteran leader's place in the transitional government to save the country from total collapse.
Tsvangirai was speaking during a meeting with French journalists in Paris on his last leg of his three-week European and United States trip two weeks ago.
There were already swirling murmurs of disapproval over the Prime Minister's statements glossing over continued human rights violations and farm invasions.
"Our relationship is business like," he said responding to questions on his working relationship with Mugabe.
"We differ on strategy and tactics but we all realise that we have to put the interests of Zimbabweans first."
He said the two differed on land reforms as his party preferred an orderly redistribution of land.
Last week the Solidarity Peace Trust, a human rights group said Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement was still yet to be fully implemented because Zanu PF and the MDC formations were forced into the coalition by neighbours.
The group called on the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU) -- the guarantors of the September 15 power-sharing agreement -- to ensure that the parties adhered to their part of the bargain.
But Tsvangirai told French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner during a lunch meeting that although the MDC- T was initially reluctant to join hands with Mugabe it realised that the new dispensation was irreversible.
"The situation was not as clear as we have seen it in the past four months," he said. "Zimbabwe is changing and it is now on an irreversible path to democracy and in the next 18 months we will hold free and fair elections after we craft a new constitution.
"Before we came into government it was totally inconceivable that I will sit in the same cabinet with Mugabe but I will be the first one to defend his right to a place in the transition."
Tsvangirai was also asked about his previous Zanu PF membership which he said fell away after he became disgruntled with the party's policies.
He said Mugabe's transformation from being a liberation hero to a ruthless leader "confounds friend and foes alike".
The Prime Minister also said there was need to bring closure to the circumstances leading to the death of his wife, Susan, saying he is convinced that it was a genuine accident.
Tsvangirai's wife died on the spot just three weeks after he was sworn when their car collided with a truck on the Harare- Masvingo highway.
"I could have died in that accident," he said. "I saw what happened and believe it was an accident.
"This came against the background of a number of accidents in Zimbabwe that involved politicians that were never explained."
He said he never considered quitting politics after the accident as it would have been "a betrayal of the party and the people who gave us the mandate to lead them".